I have this weird black fuzz towards the front of the engine, around and on the vanos solenoid. I know many people have had oil gasket leaks but my oil filter housing shows no sign of oil leakage. I also had notice that there was some oil on the driver side wishbone when doing an oil change. Anyone encounters this problem or know what it may be?

Hard to see on my phone but certainly looks like oil seepage with dirt/dust sticking to it. Kind of baked in place. I've seen it on many other older cars with gasket leaks or oil spillage that was never cleaned up.

Valve cover gasket most likely, but could also be broken valve cover bolt. Try and torque them down to spec first and see if any were loose. If not, then replace VCG.

I had a feeling it may be the valve cover gasket, I'll go grab a torque wrench and check out if any where loose.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Todd135i

Hard to see on my phone but certainly looks like oil seepage with dirt/dust sticking to it. Kind of baked in place. I've seen it on many other older cars with gasket leaks or oil spillage that was never cleaned up.

I'd carefully clean it off and watch it.

After torquing the valve cover down I'll clean of the black fuzz, I have not been losing very much oil but its something I'll keep my eye on.

Yea, while it may look like a lot. In reality it's not that bad if you don't mind it gunking up. I probably wouldn't fix it unless I saw "wet" oil. <-- if that makes sense.

Yeah it makes sense I have yet to see "wet oil", it has always been black and fizzy but I'll just keep an eye on it. If I start seeing a significant drop in oil then it will be a cause for alarm. I just wanted to see if anyone else had this problem and how he/she went about fixing it.

Just to update you guys I found the problem was not the valve gasket or the oil filter housing gasket. It turned out the o ring for the crank sensor which is right above the inlet vanos was not good, So I replaced it and not more leaking. This person also had a similar problem but his crank sensor was located by the manifold http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=737210

Just to update you guys I found the problem was not the valve gasket or the oil filter housing gasket. It turned out the o ring for the crank sensor which is right above the inlet vanos was not good, So I replaced it and not more leaking. This person also had a similar problem but his crank sensor was located by the manifold http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=737210

I replaced the crank position sensor not due to oil leakage but due to a bad sensor that would not let me shit gears at all.

what you more than likely replaced, because it was close to your vanos is the CAMshaft sensor Oring

Leaking oil filter housing gasket weeps oil and it runs onto the front of the motor, collecting dirt over time. Mine looked the same - it was not the VC gasket. I replaced the oil filter housing gasket and cleaned it up with brake clean. Remove the belly pan and use a large drain pan or drip pan available from an auto parts store or even a big sheet of cardboard to catch the runoff.

I replaced the crank position sensor not due to oil leakage but due to a bad sensor that would not let me shit gears at all.

what you more than likely replaced, because it was close to your vanos is the CAMshaft sensor Oring

crank and Cam are completely different

Oops your absolutely right thanks for pointing that out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesM3M5

Leaking oil filter housing gasket weeps oil and it runs onto the front of the motor, collecting dirt over time. Mine looked the same - it was not the VC gasket. I replaced the oil filter housing gasket and cleaned it up with brake clean. Remove the belly pan and use a large drain pan or drip pan available from an auto parts store or even a big sheet of cardboard to catch the runoff.

This might be the case, but once I had replaced the o-ring I did not see any more oil. I will keep an eye on the oil filter housing since it is around that time for me to swap it it anyway. Since I lack a oil cooler I assume it should not be to bad replaceing the oil filter hosing gasket.

You have to lift the manifold up a little - so there is some headache involved. I just unscrewed the 6 nuts and 1 bolt that hold the manifold down to the head and lifted it up a bit to gain access to one of the Torx head bolts that holds the filter housing to the head.

I would recommend washing down the engine and blowing out the area around the manifold-to-head interface with compressed air. It will remove any dirt and sand that has collected so you don't drop that stuff into the intake ports. Do not wash the engine without the cover in place, though. BMW states quite boldly in their manuals that the injectors are not waterproof and should never get wet.